April 15, 2013 - Charles, Tango and questing for new food



hey family
thanks for the letters and telling me what is happening back home.  i love the stories of trina curtis and heather and glad to see that everything is going well with the move of crystal and ryan.   thanks for telling me about john cannon.  can you find a way to get me his email so i can send him a quick note?  thanks.  

i am devastated to hear about the garlicks and i will pray for them.  pass all my love, support and encouragement on to them and their family.  tell brandon to write me back.  i will write him today again.  there is a talk that i absolutely love by elder eyring called "mountains to climb"  that has taught me many things.  one quote: "if the foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, the power to endure will crumble". he talks of laying a foundation of faith based on consistent effort to make right choices.  and when this foundation is laid, no mountain, no trial, no burden is too heavy to bear.  he also says that he cannot promise that our trials will be taken or even will seem but a moment or pass with ease but with a foundation of faith all is possible.  its such a great talk, so powerful.  

i think i have mentioned charles already but he is one of our  investigators and if all goes well he should be getting baptized this saturday.  he is super great and loves the message.  he has gotten some of his siblings and neighbors to come and listen and he wants all of them to have a book of mormon.  he accepts and understands so well.  he is really awesome.  he told us the other day that he had been doing a bit of missionary work and talked with his neighbor and we should be going to see them both tonight. he's great.  

also we finally had another lesson with tango, he went on a trip to his village or somewhere to visit his family and was there for a bit, but he is back now and still loves to learn.  he told us that his family had already seen some kind of change in him and he said that its because of the book of mormon and so his sister wanted to get one to read, so he called us up and said can i get another one my sister wants to keep this one, and we were like booh yeah!  it was great.  i am excited to keep teaching him.  

elder hales and i are on a quest to find the perfect fruit salad drink here.  you get one of the big huge mangos, which by the way are straight from heaven and no joke are really huge, but you get one of those and then a pineapple and some bananas a can of spite.  its really good, we are going to try it with some youki, a fruity kind of soda that they have here.  we will perfect it one day.  so i just heard a huge burst of thunder and so i fully expect to get some rain while we go out in a little bit.  just from the bit of sky i can see it doesn't look too bad, but any rain here is a lot, and a lot is really a lot.  it'll be great.  

it rained last night, but i pretty much slept through it all.  that's happened a couple of other times.  i wake up and it feels a little cooler than usual and ill say to elder hales, did it rain, and he can't believe i slept through it because it gets pretty loud.  at least our roof is not metal like most people,  i don't know how they sleep with the rain on the metal roof, it gets really loud.  speaking of food though.  

i asked last week but can you send me the recipe and directions for how to make simple syrup with vanilla flavor and sugar and water, and also your pancake recipe with directions and also an emphasis on what is absolutely necessary in your next letter?  thanks so much, i am starting to get a little creative, and aspiring to recreate some things.  it will be an adventure, and definitely will not be like home, but you just make do here.  its great.

dad we have water in a giant tank already saved up, sister weed is great at keeping everyone healthy, knowledgeable, and safe here.  i think that is all i have for now and wish you all good luck with finals and all that end of school fun.  thanks again for everything.  
love you all so  much!  Elder Rybin